ON the Saturday night after we had won the FA Cup by beating Manchester City at Wembley, we all went to a big reception at a London West End hotel.

Lord Derby was in the chair and after the dinner was over I went up to him and said to him, "I believe you've got a good horse in the Chester Vase this year."

He said, "Yes. My trainer tells me that if it wins the Chester Vase it will win the Derby."

The name of the horse was Hyperion so I told all the lads what Lord Derby had said and we all had a good bet on it for the Derby. On the day of the race we were in Copenhagen on tour.

We were all sitting in a beer garden in the Hotel Cosmopolitan having a few beers. We were listening to the radio and suddenly we heard this announcement in English, "Here is the result of the English Derby - first Hyperion."

At that we all jumped to our feet, knocked over the table and in our excitement spilt all the beer on it. Some of it splashed over a gentleman sitting at the next table.

I went to him to apologise and he said, "It's all right. I've enjoyed every moment of your conversation."

I looked at him closely and saw that it was that famous old film star, Jean Hersholt. I offered to pay for his suit to be cleaned but he said, "Don't bother. I'd like all you lads to have a drink with me. It's been very nice listening to you all."

But to go back to the days immediately after the Cup final, we stayed overnight in London on the Sunday night and came back to Liverpool by train on the Monday.

On the train the chairman, old Bill Cuff, said to me, "Billy, take the Cup right through the train. It's a special train with lots of our supporters on it so let them have a look at it."

So I started off down the train with the Cup with a few of the lads. Well, of course, by the time I'd got halfway down the train we'd had a few drinks with the people and were all feeling great.

When the train was pulling out of Crewe for home there were hundreds of people standing in the fields and lining the track.

They had come miles to see the Cup so I opened the window and showed it to them. As I showed it through the open window the lid fell off. As it happened, Tommy Johnson was standing close to me and he just caught the lid before it dropped on the railway line.

We got a fantastic reception at Lime Street when we arrived. We went from the station to the Town Hall in a horse-drawn wagonette, sitting in the open on the top so that everyone could see the Cup and the players.

I'll never forget the people cheering as we went along Lime Street and Dale Street.

After the reception at the Town Hall we went by coach to Goodison Park. The ground had been opened to the public and the place was packed. We went out onto the pitch and walked round to show them the Cup.

We had one more match to play in the League against Sheffield Wednesday and that ended a great season - the end of our hat-trick sequence.